Barry Goldwater famously said in accepting the 1964 Republican presidential nomination:
I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!
I have finally come to the realization why neither part of this quote is true. Extremism raises peoples’ emotions. Uncontrolled emotions make it hard for people to make rational decisions. Most of the time, we want people to make rational decisions.
At least this is my rationalization to justify my emotional dislike of this famous quote.
Thinking about the current Health Care debate, getting people all riled up (or however they get riled up) is not helping them to discover what the health care reform really is. Most of the people who are against it would actually benefit greatly from it. Apart from the individuals, the economy and the country as a whole would benefit.
In this case moderation may be the best approach for calming the situation down. What good does it do when the proponents call the opponents names and get just as emotional? How is that going to make the opponents feel that the outcomes they worry about will be averted by changes the proponents will make? Each side might as well be shouting, “Is anyone listening to me?”
The answer ought to be an obvious, “Yes we are listening to you. Now let me explain what we have done in response to your concerns. Then tell me if this gets to the essence of your worry.”
It does no good for either side to explain when people on the other side are not listening. Maybe neither side is able to listen to what they hear because their emotions are too strong a filter between their ears and the rational thinking part of their brains.
That was a great clip from Rachel Maddow.
While it may be true that the fear is being stirred up by the right wing media, my point is that stirring the pot some more by yelling back is not going to fix the situation.
For the most part, Rachel Maddow’s piece was not yelling back. Keith Olbermann is the one that does a lot of yelling back.
If we can recognize what some people are worried about, would it help to put wording in the health care reform bill that said that there shall be no regulations that in any way endorses or promotes the idea of assisted suicide? Such decisions must be left up to the patient.
Now I can think of reasons why someone might want to promote assisted suicide, but if this is too frightening an idea to be backed by government then we could forswear promoting it.
The Oregon law on assisted suicide has protections in it to prevent anyone from encouraging another person to choose assisted suicide.
Well, it’s pretty clear that 99% of those doing the screaming are against the reform. And it’s pretty clear they’re egged on by the media as this Rachel Maddow clip shows:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#32411068
These people have got to be referred to as the liars they are. Nothing wrong with a little emotion here. No easy way around it. At least the NYT had a piece this morning calling a spade a spade: False ‘Death Panel’ Rumor Has Some Familiar Roots. Not often found in the media.